MR. KNOW-IT-ALL: Catching up with Duke Farrell

Sunday

Aug 31, 2014 at 12:25 AM

Editor's note: Mr. Know-It-All is an occasional feature in which we answer reader questions about local history. Got a good question for Mr. Know-It-All? See the the email address at the bottom of this story.Dear Mr. Know-It-All, my grandfather told me that a former Marlborough resident played on the Boston Americans, the first team to win the World Series. His said his name was Duke Farrell. What can you tell me about him? - S.M., NatickPlenty, S.M., thanks to a variety of sources, including Baseball-Reference.com, Wikipedia, the Society of American Baseball Research, the Baseball Almanac, Baseball Library.com, the Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers and The New York Times.Let’s start at the very beginning because that’s a very good place to start. I feel a song coming on. Anyway, Charles Andrew "Duke" Farrell was born in Oakdale, Massachusetts, on Aug. 31, 1866, the same year as H.G. Wells, Erik Satie, Beatrix Potter and Butch Cassidy. They had so much in common. Oakdale, as everyone knows, is a village of West Boylston, a portion of which borders Shrewsbury.Duke’s father, Michael, worked in a shoe store in Marlborough while his mother, Ellen, attended to home duties. Mom and dad hailed from Ireland. Duke was the first born in a family that included five sisters: Mary, Eva, Gertrude, Rose and Blanche. Duke attended elementary school in Oakdale and, after the family moved to Marlborough, the Bigelow Grammar School. He would chalk up a total of nine years of schooling.Duke began playing baseball in Marlborough as a pitcher, when necessary, but mostly as a switch-hitting catcher. The 6-1, 208-pounder began his professional career in 1887 playing for the Lawrence team in the New England League. In 47 games, Duke hit .376. Not too shabby. Then again, three of his teammates hit over .400.By the way, the nickname "Duke" was reportedly bestowed on the Marlborough man by the concessionaire Harry M. Stevens in 1891. One account has Duke earning the moniker after eating 380 clams. I have no idea what downing a bunch of bivalves has to do with dukedom. Anyway, by 1895, he was referred to as Duke, The Duke or the duke of Marlborough.In 1888, Duke moved up to the majors, playing for the Chicago White Stockings in the National League, managed by the legendary Cap Anson, the first player to amass 3,000 hits. Duke, who credited Anson for his development as a ballplayer, quickly made an impact. The April 4 issue of "Sporting Life" called his catching and hitting in an exhibition game in New Orleans "the feature of Chicago’s play," and in June Pittsburgh wanted to buy his contract, but Chicago owner Albert Spalding - yes, he's also the sporting goods guy - refused to sell.When the team played an exhibition game in Marlborough, friends gave Duke a gold watch. In 64 games, he hit .232 with 3 homers and 19 RBIs. Those numbers would rise during his 18-year career.In 1890, Duke joined the Players League on a Chicago Pirates team managed by Charles Comiskey, who would later get a ballpark named after him.In 1891, Duke signed with the Boston Reds in the American Association and enjoyed his best season, leading the league in home runs with 12, tying for most RBIs with teammate Hugh Duffy with 110, scoring 108 runs and batting .302. All were career highs, except for batting average. He would hit .322 in 1897 with the Washington Senators, who then played in the National League. The Boston Reds also finished in first place in 1891, thanks in large part to Duke, who the press called "the king of all catchers."Duke would go on to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates (where he refused to shave off his mustache as his teammates did), the New York Giants, the aforementioned Senators and the Brooklyn Superbas, who won pennants in 1899 and 1900 with him aboard.In 1903, Duke shifted allegiances from the National to the American League, joining the Boston Americans, the forerunners of the Boston Red Sox, Good timing as 1903 marked the debut of the World Series, which the Americans won by defeating the heavily favored Pittsburgh Pirates. Duke, who this time shaved off his mustache for his new team, received a royal welcome when the Americans opened the season on April 20 in front of a record-breaking crowd in the Huntington Avenue Grounds. No Fenway Park yet. During Duke’s first at bat, the game was interrupted so the Royal Rooters, the team’s fan club, could present him with a diamond ring, welcoming him back to Boston, the site of the 1891 pennant he’d helped win.To complete the trifecta, the Americans won the pennant in 1904, too. Too bad the Giants refused to play in the World Series.During three injury-plagued seasons, Duke only played a total in 92 games with Boston before retiring as a player in 1905 with a .275 lifetime average and a total of 51 home runs, 826 runs scored and 912 RBIs in 1,563 games. He also led the National League in pinch-hitting three times and still holds the Major League record for throwing out eight of nine opposing players who attempted to steal a base on May 11, 1897. He ended his career in baseball as a scout and assistant coach for the Boston Braves in 1924.On the personal front, Duke married the former Julia A. Bradley of Marlborough in 1888 and they had a daughter, Grace. The family moved into a new house in Marlborough in 1894. Sadly, Julia died on Feb. 15, 1898, and Grace was taken in by Duke’s parents and his sisters. During World War I, Duke served as a deputy U.S. marshal in Boston."The king of all catchers" died at the age of 58 of stomach cancer at Boston’s Carney Hospital on Feb. 15, 1925, the same date as his wife's passing. Charles Andrew "Duke" Farrell is buried in Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Marlborough.James C. O’Leary of the Boston Globe was clearly a Farrell fan. This is what he wrote for Duke’s obituary, "It is doubtful if a more lovable character ever has been, or ever will be, connected with baseball. … Clean spoken, clean living, Charley Farrell was a character worthy of emulation by all connected with baseball today."Mr. Know-It-All, aka Bob Tremblay, can be reached at 508-626-4409 or rtremblay@wickedlocal.com.

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